A cricketer, a CEO & a president walk into a bar

This is no joke. But try telling that to Steve Smith, Mark Zuckerberg and President Xi Jinping. These three men will dominate the news headlines this week for ball tampering, plummeting stock prices and trade war negotiations.

But as we all get primed to start making judgements, it’s important to focus on the key lesson from all of this: people are allowed to make mistakes; errors of judgement do happen. And we, the investors of the world, are not immune to that. For example, let’s look at Facebook right now: its share price has dropped 14% since the data breach scandal. For the first time since the year 2000, the tech industry appears to be weak. And how do I know this? Well, I’ve been using my Apple MacBook to read about it on Yahoo finance, and shortly I will post this news on Facebook and LinkedIn. Yes, sometimes investors can’t see the forest from the trees.

It’s important to keep this in mind as the value of the ASX fluctuates. There is no reason to be fearful. Investors are simply sitting on the sidelines waiting to see what happens with Facebook, waiting to see how will China respond to USA’s ambiguous trade tariffs, or more likely, they are too busy reading the sports section and making judgements on the Australian cricket team.

But ultimately, the question all investors are wondering, is should they buy now, or buy later? It’s the almighty question that ends with the same outcome: buying shares.